Hotel slammed as dangerous

A judge slammed a hotel as dangerous and described the owner of the hotel as having made a ‘dereliction of duty’ for failing to ensure that an operational fire detection system was installed at the premises. In September 2014 the fire and rescue service visited the dangerous hotel and identified a number of fire safety concerns. This included the lack of a fully functioning fire alarm system, a fire detector cover by a plastic bag in a bedroom, no self closing fire doors installed in bedrooms, emergency exits obstructed and smoke detectors removed from ceilings.

Guests placed at risk in dangerous hotel

Guests staying at the hotel were placed at risk during the period when there was not  an adequate fire detection system in place. Due to the conditions found within the dangerous hotel a prohibition notice was issued to the  owner, which required the hotel to be closed with immediate effect.

Owner pleads guilty to running a dangerous hotel

The owner of the dangerous hotel pleaded guilty to six breaches of fire safety legislation and was given a nine month suspended prison sentence, fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £15,00 in costs. In his closing statement the judge said that the lapses of fire safety at the dangerous hotel  had taken place over a period of time, which was a ‘dereliction of responsibility’ by the owner. He added: ‘The breaches of fire safety can only be categorised as very serious and dangerous as any fire could occurring had the potential to spread before guests would have been given adequate warning and time to safely evacuate, the hotel should be classed as dangerous and a potential death-trap.’

Putting lives at risk

Any guests staying at this hotel would have been put at risk. It is chilling to imagine the outcome of any serious fire that may have broken out in the hotel slammed as dangerous. Fire Risk Design urges any business owners who have any doubts as to whether they are operating  within fire safety regulation to contact us for professional, independent fire safety management guidance.